Coal-separating apparatus.



No 755,016. PATENTED MA-R.22,1904.

0-. H. KOYL.

GOAL SEPARATING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 8, 1903. 7 N0 MODEL. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

No. 755,016. PATENTED MAR.22, 1904..

A 0.11; KOYL. GOAL SEPARATING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 8, 1903.

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mg NURRKS vz No. 755,016. PATENTBD MAR. 22, 1904.

G. H. KOYL. GOAL SEPARATING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION imm JUNE a, 1903.

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UNTTED STATES Patented. March 22, 1904.

PATENT ()EEICE.

CHARLES HERSCHEL KOYL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

COAL-SEPARATING APPARATUS- SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters PatentNo. 755,016, dated March 22, 1904.. Application filed June 8, 1903.Serial No. 160,656. (No model.)

and also to a great extent pieces of refuse.

larger than the pieces of coal, is subjected while moving in athinly-distributed stream to the action of a current of air and acurrent of water successively, whereby the solids of different specificgravity-such as slate, stone, clinker-will be separated out from thecoal, leaving the latter finally to a great extent clean and free fromrefuse.

In the accompanying drawings I have represented a working plant adaptedto effectuate my invention.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of the completeapparatus. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section of the same. Fig. 3is an enlarged sectional detail view illustrative of the rotatingassorting-sieve and the parts more immediately associated therewith.

The plant illustrated in the drawings consists of the following parts: Acoarse screen A (upon which the cart dumps its load) is provided for theseparation of cans, paper, rags, and other large rubbish, which toasmall extent are mixed with household ashes. Beneath this screen is ahopper B, which catches all the material-ashes,- slate, clinkers, andcoalthat falls through the screen and conducts it to an elevator G,which carries the material to the top of the building in a continuousstream, whence it is delivered through a chute 0 onto a screen D forseparating out from the charge masses of clinker larger than any piecesof coal. Below screen D is a screen E (onto which falls the materialthat passes through screen D) for separating out the fine ash from thecharge. The refuse from D and E discharges into a chute E, which carriesit off to any point desired. By these preliminary steps the largerubbish and pieces of refuse, as well as the fine ash, have beenseparated out from the mass, leaving a mass in which the coal is mixedwith bits of clinker, slate, and other refuse of a size not largerthanthe largest pieces of coal. It remains to separate out the coal fromthis refuse. This I accomplish by subjecting the mixed material to theaction of strong currents of air and of water successively in themannerwhich willbe presently described; but in order to grade the material, aswell as to render more effective the action of the air and water blastsor currents, I prefer to preliminarily assort the charge into difierentgrades or sizes-say one size being that of pea-coal, the next nut-coal,and the next eggcoal-or approximate sizes. This can be attained bypassing the material over screens (whether stationary or movable) ofsuitable mesh. I prefer to use for this purpose a power-driven inclinedrotary screen F, into the higher end of which is discharged the materialwhich passes over the screen E. This rotary screen is divided into foursections. The first section f has a fine mesh, like E, to assure theseparating out of any fine ash which may have passed over E. The secondsection, f, is gradedfor, say, pea-coal, and through it pass the bits ofcoal and refusesuch as slate, clinker, &c.of that size. The nextsection, f is graded for nut-coal, and the last section, J, is gradedfor eg -coal. Each section has its own separate and distinct hopper ffff respectively, into which it discharges the fine ash, hopper f leadinginto the refuse-chute E. The charge is thus separated into a number ofdistinct subdivisions. These subdivisions remain distinct and separatefrom one another during subsequent treatment, and the pieces, whethercoal or clinker, &c., which make up any one subdivision are allapproximately of a size.

Below each hopper f f f is an inclined feeding plate or shelfG,.(preferably of sheetsteel,) down which passes the material dischargedfrom the hopper above. The shelf is attached (by hinge or otherwise) atits lower end to a suitable support, and it is designed to be verticallyvibrated or shaken, for which clinker box K above.

purpose it can rest at its upper end upon a series of radial knockers itupon a powerdriven rotary shaft H. Directly below the front end of eachfeed plate or shelf G is a long narrow horizontal slit 2' of a lengthequal to the Width of the discharge end of the feed plate andconstituting the mouth or discharge-i. orifice of a nozzle I, leadingfrom an air-res- Voir 1, containing air under pressure supplied to it byan air-blower I The front edge of the feed-plate is directly at and overthe discharge-slit, so that the pieces of coal, &c., passing over thefront edge of the feed-plate will drop with minimum velocity upon thehorizontal stream of air under pressure issuing from the horizontal slitin the nozzle below. The angle of inclination of the feeding-plateshould be little, so that the descent of the pieces thereon shall becomparatively slow. This, coupled with the vibrating movement of thefeed-plate, insures the gradual but uniform descent of the pieces andcauses them to progress side by side and not one above another, all ofwhich conditions conduce to the more perfect separating action of theair-blast. This air-blast serves to separate out from the mass thelighter bits of refuse. The air issues from the slit in a wide shallowstream of predetermined pressure and speed, and upon it is deliveredfrom the feed-plate above the thin regulated stream of mixed pieces ofcoal, clinker, slate, &c. The pieces of greater specific gravity, suchas coal and hard clinker, fall through the stream of air with but slightdeflection from their course; but the lighter pieces are deflected muchmore by the air-current and are carried thereby beyond a partition J,set up at a suitable point for the purpose of separating these lighterpieces from those of greater specific gravity. This partition is in thepresent instance set up in inclined position in a box K. The lightclinker, &c., is carried over into that part of the box beyond thepartition, while the coal and hard clinker drop on the other side of thepartition and are carride off through a discharge-chute 7a. Below thischute Z: are a series of vibratory feedplates L and nozzles M, which arethe same in construction and arrangement as the feedplate G and nozzlesI, already described, the difference being that the nozzles M dischargestreams of water of predetermind pressure and speed instead of streamsof air. The nozzles get their water-suppl y from the waterreservoir N,with which they are connected. With each nozzle M and its feed-plate Lis associated a box 0, having a partition P,sirnilar in function to thepartition J in thelight- R is a rotary powerdriven pump which takeswater from the several boxes 0 through pipe 1' and branches r andreturns it to the reservoir Nthrough pipe 0' There is in each box O avertical wall 0 between the partition P and the far side or outer wallof the box. The space between this wall and the adjoining side of thebox, into which space the appropriate branch pipe 0'' enters, forms adownpour for the water from the box.

The action of the horizontal stream of water issuing from each nozzleupon thepieces dropping on it from above is to permit the coal, which isof greater specific gravity, to pass down without material deflectionupon the near. side of the partition P, but to deflect to the far sideof the partition the hard clinker and stone, which while of greaterspecific gravity than the light clinker separated out by the previousoperation is of less specific gravity than the coal. In this way Iobtain a body of coal which is almost entirely free from stone, clinker,and other foreign substance and is also washed and clean.

From the box 0 the coal passes by chutes S to the elevator T withperforated buckets, which deliver it to the picking-belts V,where boysmay glean the few remaining bits of foreign substances now washed andeasily seen. From the picking-belts the coal is delivered tostorage-bins W or other suitable receptacles.

It will be understood that at the various points in the apparatus whererefuse may accumulate suitable means for discharging and carrying offthe same should be provided.

The nozzles both for the air and the water will of course be providedeach with individual means for regulating the speed and pressure of thedischarge therefrom.

In that portion of the apparatus in which water is used the coal andrefuse bins should be water-tight, so that the stream of water shall bemerely a surface current, and to prevent eddies the top of the wall 0,over which the water rises from the bin, should be below the lower edgeof the discharge-slit in the nozzlethat is to say, should be in a planeslightly below the plane of the bottom of the discharge-slit in thenozzle. The wall 0 is, in fact, a dam, which not only determines theheight of the water in box 0, but serves also to keep back refuse frompassing over into the downpour.

Each vibrating feed-shaft G has a dischargemouth equal in width to theslit in the fluiddischarge nozzle below. In practice the shelf is causedto make, say, thirty vibrations a second. The angle of inclination atwhich the shelf is set is not steep, but is of such comparatively slightinclination that the pieces of coal, &c., which rest upon it will notslide down until vibration begins. In this way the material when actedon is discharged from the shelf upon the fluid-stream below in a path ata very slight inclination to the direction of travel of the same, theresult being that the Work of separation is very efiicientlyaccomplished. This feature is of material value, whether the separatingfluid employed be water or air. I prefer, however, the use of both ofthe last-named agents successively. By means of the air the lightclinker (which is in substance nothing but fine ash not yet broken up)is easily removed from the mass of material, leaving for the waterseparation only the heavy-(or real) clinker and coal, which twosubstances are of nearly the same specific gravity. The air is usedfirst, because it takes out practically all of the dust and other lightmaterial, which if allowed to remain would float on the water and wouldsoon foul the water to such an extent that its repeated use could notlong be continued. The water is used afterward, because its specificgravity fits it for the separation of pieces of coal and clinker (whichlatter is somewhat porous) during the moment when the clinker-holes arestill filled with air and before they have filled with water, duringwhich moment the coal drops on the near side of the partition P and theclinker is floated over to the far side of the latter, immediately afterwhich the clinker sinks. I use the water last because practically thelast step in the process is the washing of the coal, and this is alsoeffected by the water.

Having described my improvements and the best way now known to me ofcarrying the same into effect, what I claim herein as new and of my owninvention is as follows:

1. In an apparatus for separating coal from clinker and other refuse,the combination of the following instrumentalities viz: a substantiallyhorizontal nozzle terminating in a wide, shallow, substantiallyhorizontal dischargemouth from which the fluid willissue in a wideshallow horizontal stream; means for supplying fluid under pressure tosaid nozzle; a vibrating feed-shelf having a discharge-mouth of a widthsubstantially the same as that of the fluid-discharge mouth and arrangedimmediately above the latter so that the material passing from the shelfwill be delivered upon the surface of the stream of fluid below, theshelf being set at a slight rearward inclination relatively to thenozzle; means for vibrating the shelf; a receptacle below, and apartition in said receptacle to one side or the other of which thedifferent components of the mass under treatment will pass according totheir different specific gravities, substantially as and for the purposehereinbefore set forth.

2. In apparatus for separating coal from clinker and other refuse, thecombination of the following instrumentalities viz: a substantiallyhorizontal air-nozzle terminating in a wide shallow mouth from which theair will issue in a wide shallow horizontal stream; means for supplying.air under pressure to said nozzle; a vibrating feed-shelf having adischarge-mouth of the same width with that of the air-nozzle andarranged immediately above and at a slight rearward inclinationrelatively to the nozzle; a receptacle below and a partition in thereceptacle to one side or the other of which the diflerent components ofthe mass under treatment will pass according to their specificgravities; a second vibrating feedshelf arranged below and 'tocommunicate with that compartment of the receptacle above containing themixed clinker and coal resulting from the air-separating operation; asubstantially horizontal water-nozzle with a wide shallowdischarge-mouth, arranged immediately below the discharge end of thescreen, the latter being set at a slight rearward inclination relativelyto the nozzle so that the mixed coal and clinker from the screen shallbe launched upon, rather than dropped into the stream of water issuingfrom the nozzle; means for supplying water under pressure to saidnozzle; and means for carrying off the clinker separated out from thecoal by the action of the water, substantially as hereinbefore setforth.

3. In apparatus for separating coal from clinker and other refuse, thecombination of the following instrumentalities viz: a nozzle terminatingin a wide, shallow horizontal discharge-mouth; means for supplying waterun: der pressure to said nozzle; means for feeding upon the surface ofthe wide, shallow stream of water issuing from said nozzle, the materialto be acted on; a water-tight receptacle belowdivided by a partitionwith two bins, into one or the other of which the different componentsof the mass under treatment will pass according totheir differentspecific gravities; and awall or dam oover which the water passes fromthe receptacle having its top in a plane slightly below the plane of thebottom of the discharge-mouth in the nozzle, substantially as and forthe purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have my hand this 2d day of June, 1903.

CHARLES HERSOHEL KOYL.

Witnesses:

H. STERN, CHAs. A. HAMMOND.

hereunto set

